A former football agent who sued Dundee United for £75,000 as his share of the transfer fee for Johnny Russell has abandoned his law suit.
Charles Duddy of Premier Sports Management International Ltd had claimed the club struck a deal with him whereby he was entitled to 10% of any future transfer fee for the player.
Russell moved to Derby County last summer for £750,000 and Duddy had expected to be paid a share of that by the club.
However, Dundee United rejected the claims, stating Duddy did not represent the player as he was not a licensed agent and claim they had no contract with him.
The former agent then raised a court action against United, and during the initial hearings the court was told no contract between the club and the agent had been lodged by Duddy’s legal team.
Sheriff George Way had stated previously that Mr Duddy had presented an “inadequate” case and had allowed a further hearing for his lawyers to produce proof of a contract between the parties.
When the case called in court last week the agent received a huge setback when Sheriff McFarlane refused permission to amend his legal team’s pleas.
Solicitor Greg Sibbald, who moved the amendment on behalf of Mr Duddy, said the intention had been to “focus the main issue” of the dispute.
He had also suggested if the sheriff felt the amendment would prejudice the defence the proof could be dismissed and a new proof date assigned to give the defence more time to prepare their case.
However, Sheriff McFarlane agreed with United’s lawyers that the amendments were more akin to a “rewriting” of the pleas initially lodged with the court when the action was raised.
As a result he ruled the amendments were too late as the civil action had already gone to a closed record and only minor amendments would have been ruled admissible.
Last night Charles Duddy said he knew nothing about the decision as it was in the hands of his lawyers. Dundee United director Derek Robertson said the club would be making no statement on the result of the legal action.